I also got albums from Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Wilco, A Fine Frenzy, Animal Collective, Coconut Records, Erin McKeown, Ian Hunter, M. Ward, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Throw Me the Statue, and a few others here and there came and went. All had things that were good about them, but in the end, I don’t go back to them much.

Wilco is a good example. “Bull Black Nova” is an excellent song, but most of the rest of the album sounds more twee than Tweedy to me. I’m really amazed that so many people are fawning over this album, rather than despairing for how far things have fallen from the amazing run of Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot . . . the last two Wilco albums, especially, are a dramatic falling off in every respect but their playing. Wilco remains a wonderful band, but they’re really run out of ideas. And this Tweedy media saturation this fall all about finding humor and a spiritual center just feeds the cult of personality over song quality. That’s my little Wilco rant.

And then an Animal Collective rant: I really didn’t see what was interesting about this album. I’ve forced myself to listen to it several times, but it continues to just irritate me. It grates on my nerves.

Also, the following all came out this year as well, and I spent a LOT of time listening to them, but they seemed not to qualify for the list, as they were, well, less new. The Beatles, especially, sounded great, but in the end these are all songs I’ve been listing to for 40 years, you know? I grew up with them. they’re a part of the air now.

Leonard Cohen, Live in LondonBon Iver, Blood Bank (as it was an EP [and one of the songs was a reworking of a song from the Volcano Choir album])Neil Young, Dreamin' Man (Live ’92)Neil Young Archives Vol 1The Beatles RemastersPhilip Glass, The Orange Mountain Music (Philip Glass Sampler Vol I)

4 Comments:

I'm not sure I understand this comment in reference to Animal Collective, "I really didn’t see what was interesting about this album."

Now I can understand not enjoying it, hating it, thinking it was OK, but to say there was nothing "interesting" about it just makes it seem like you never listened to the album (though, I believe you did, and this is why I can't understand your comment).

The first track in itself is incredibly "interesting," even if you don't enjoy it. I'm just at a loss here, and I'd like to understand your opinion further, I'm not just attacking your opinion I would really like to understand how a song with such an "interesting" time signature like "Lion In a Coma," or the gorgeous "Bluish" or what I perceived to be a universally enjoyable song "My Girls" can be heard without the slightest "interest."

I'm sure this comment is coming off wrong, and I'm an obviously biased fan of the band, but would really appreciate if you could further explain your opinion of the album.

Oh, I guess you're right. I kept going back to it, so there must have been something interesting there. Part of the interest I had was that I kept hearing people talk about how wonderful it was . . . so part of my interest was sociological I suppose.

I found it hard to listen to, and in the end, not pleasurable. And I was surprised by that, as many people told me it was, indeed pleasurable.

For me, the layering of things made it into mush. That's probably due to the fact that I like rather under-orchestrated things.

When I was saying "interesting" I should have said "arresting." There was nothing arresting in this album for me. It just kind of whooshed by.

Thanks for making me clarify. I have a tendency to just glaze over things.

I'm sentimentally attached to all things Neil Young, of course, but I really wasn't knocked out by his or Dylan's new ones. As well, I've just gotten the Avett Brothers album and I like it a lot. Maybe it would be number 20.

There were a lot of really good things that came out this year, so many of which (the Son Volt, the Louris/Olson, the Cracker, etc) were almost totally overlooked. I wish I were dictator of the music universe.

Also, I'm growing wear of the Volcano Choir one already. Maybe Fork in the Road should be 20 and Avett Bros 19 and Volcano Choir off...